Sci-fi meets romance in new romantic comedy “Moonshot” starring Lana Condor and Cole Sprouse

Warner Bros. conducted a college roundtable with college journalists through Zoom with Lana Condor and Cole Sprouse (top left corner) (Warner Bros Media)

“I really enjoy doing films that are uplifting and that are joyous and that make people feel less alone and feel happier.”

That’s how Lana Condor decided to take on the role of Sophie alongside Cole Sprouse as Walt in their new upcoming sci-fi, romantic comedy “Moonshot.”

Based in 2049, the film follows Sophie and Walt as they try to reach their goal of going to Mars. Sophie has had a strict bucket list to stick to her whole life and one of them is to reunite with her boyfriend who’s currently working on Mars. Although Walt’s application to go to Mars is rejected several times, he decides to take the ultimate risk to meet the girl of his dreams that’s on Mars as well. 

Ahead of the film’s release, Warner Brothers Media conducted a college roundtable for “Moonshot.”

Sci-fi and rom-com is not a common genre combination to watch or hear about and combining the two is something that not a lot of people expect. The genre was something new to Condor, who starred in the “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” Netflix movie series. 

“It’s such a weird niche genre that I don't even know you can even call a genre because how many Sci-fi rom coms are out there?” Condor questioned. “For me, just trying something new that’s so niche and so not done was really exciting for me.”

For Sprouse, he said that he finally checked something off of his bucket list by diving into this genre: getting a spacesuit, which he has wanted since he was nine. 

“One of my bucket lists as a child was to have a spacesuit,” Sprouse said half-excited and half-embarrassed since Condor was laughing right beside him. “I wanted to do a movie where I was in a spacesuit as a kid and I did it so I got to mark it off the list!”

Walt and Sophie’s characters both have strong personalities that clash at first. Both Condor and Sprouse said that they prepared differently for this role since it was unlike any other role they’ve had and different from their personalities as well. 

Sophie is very goal-oriented and doesn't like to stray off of the life path that she’s worked so hard to develop over the years. In order to become Sophie, Condor said that she was inspired by her mom. 

“My mom is kind of type A. She loves a plan, she loves to have her control and know the outcome of a situation,” said Condor. 

Walt, on the other hand, only had one goal —  to go to Mars. Everything else he did was unplanned and not thought out. Sprouse said that he wanted Walt to feel like a super approachable guy. 

“I wanted him to feel like your old best friend- that really annoying guy that used to hang around the edge of the group so I just shadowed my brother for a while,” Sprouse said jokingly. 

Compared to this film, his role in “Five Feet Apart” was more intense because “it was a much more physical transformation because a lot of people with cystic fibrosis lose a ton of weight because of their illness.”

“I’d say ‘The Suite Life’ did more heavy lifting for me as a child for this role than anything else,” Sprouse said, referring to the Disney show he starred in as a child alongside his twin brother Dylan Sprouse. 

It might not have been that much to prepare physically, but it was still uncomfortable sometimes, especially when they had to do the green screen scenes, according to Condor. 

There would be times when both actors would be hanging from harnesses for four to five hours when they had to do a particular scene. Sprouse noted that the harnesses were definitely too tight in certain areas. 

“I told myself on that day: ‘Lana, no matter how hot it gets or how uncomfortable I might be, I know for a fact Cole has it worse,’” Condor noted.  

Although casually going to Mars isn’t a reality for us right now, Condor said the message of the movie can still be applied to everyday life, especially for young adults. 

In the film, video calling and long-distance relationships are enhanced by technology but Condor said that those aspects are still something that people can relate to. 

“Us young people- we’ve kind of grown up in this space where video conference, especially during the pandemic, is very very normal now and long-distance relationships or dating virtually is very normal these days so I think there are aspects of that in this movie that is very relevant to how young people have to coexist online,” said Condor. 

Although traveling to Mars isn’t something that we can do right now, conversations are being had about the possibility of it in the near future. Sprouse related the issue back to the movie by asking what our focus should be on when it came to distributing resources. 

“Do we prepare another space of existence for us on a different planet or do we deal with the present issue and put our resources towards something that already exists?” Sprouse asked. 

Both actors feel as though you can learn from their characters too. Sprouse said that for Sophie’s character, she has to think about the lack of control she has and if she’s living presently in the moment.

“The conversation around Sophie's character when it comes to Walt and Walt’s character is relieving yourself of this fear of loss of control and becoming a by-the-wind sailor and allowing things to sort of happen and going with the flow rather against the grain.”

Condor said that there’s also something to learn from Walt. She said that although Walt had big aspirations, it still works out for him. 

“He goes through so many obstacles and there are so many times he could’ve should’ve would’ve died, but somehow because he really wanted it so bad he essentially made his goal.” 

The overall message of the film made Condor remember something a professor talked to her about. She said that the professor said that a lot of her students didn't think about the future due to how much the world had changed in the past few years. 

“She was talking about the importance of making sure that you won't lose your sense of wonder and adventure and your sense of wanting to dream.”

“Sounds like a professor in a Pixar movie,” Sprouse commented, making Condor laugh and agree. 

Condor said she learned that even though so much has happened to everyone, you can’t let that hold you back from still wanting and believing that you can go on a grand adventure and have your dreams come true. 

“The importance of dreaming and continuing to see a future even though we know that it's so murky is so important.” 
“Moonshot” will be available to stream on HBO Max Mar 31, 2022.